Review: WebStart for BlackBerry

Ingboo WebStart calls itself “your internet launchpad”. Sure, you can hit your BlackBerry browser to go and search for the information you want. Do you really want to put that much effort into it? No, not really. You want a simple and concise connection to the information you need; bringing the facts to you, rather than you having to hunt for it. You’re too busy to afford the time it takes to look up everything that catches your fancy (or at least you pretend to be that busy). Let’s face it, your brain is the ultimate couch potato; it holds the remote and is flicking channels, looking for stimulation.

Put down the remote, pick up your BlackBerry and have a look at Ingboo WebStart. I did, after Michael posted about it back in May. Ingboo WebStart offers a smooth and compact way to view what interests you the most. Whether it’s the CrackBerry Blogs, Investment information or even Twitter and LinkedIn; you will be easily able to scan through and catch up on the world as you want to see it.

About IngBoo WebStart

The IngBoo WebStart application was developed by IngBoo Inc, which was founded in 2007. Besides the BlackBerry application, IngBoo also works from your computer, iPhone or other mobile devices. The application is currently in version 1.5.1, with a file size of 448.5 KB. In order to use the application, you must be running OS 4.6 or higher. There doesn’t seem to be any Storm support currently, but they do say that it’s coming. According to IngBoo Inc, the following devices are supported:

Tour 9630/9650

Bold 9000/9700

Curve 8900/8930

The one thing I like about IngBoo WebStart is the layout. The way I access the information I need is just as important as the information itself. If it’s too difficult to read what I want, then forget it. Here’s how the main menu is laid out:

the main menu

The top menu bar is the search options. Here, you can search by keyword or RSS feed. For example; if I plug in BlackBerry, then hit search, I get multiple results covering feeds, newsletters and more. I see BlackBerry deals from newegg, google searches, youtube video watches and so on. To add content for you to follow, you simply click on the Add button.

Your selected items are then displayed in the middle of the screen. You will see brief details of each listing, designed to give you “snackable snippets” of information. By clicking on each listing, you are redirected to a screen where you can see their headlines of the day. Going further, clicking on a headline brings you to a preview screen. The list will show unopened items first, as opened items are moved to the bottom of the list. IngBoo Webstart also lets you decide the level of importance of each watch item; showing the most important ones to you first. Your watch list can be updated in 5 different intervals; 15 minutes, 30 minutes, every hour, every 4 hours or once a day.

hmm what priority should I choose...

IngBoo WebStart tries to give access to social networking sites. but this option needs to be worked on. With Twitter, you can look at your Friends timeline, but there’s no organization to it. Rather than neatly laid out and divided followings, all I see is text that seems to run into one another. No option to retweet, send a direct message or anything.

Twitter functionality is lacking

The bottom of the screen houses your catalog of potential items you wish to add to your watch list. Each item can be also filtered to only show entries that include a specific keyword. Categories are divided into Popular, Business, Entertainment, Jobs, News, Sports and more. The application is slow to open up categories, preferences, launch the browser (pretty much everything other than looking at your watch list.) Response time is typically anywhere between 5 to 10 seconds before the selected action is completed.

Conclusion

If the response time and social networking options could be addressed in future builds, then IngBoo WebStart would be a pretty solid application. I was impressed with the no-nonsense approach to giving users nibbles of news and bites of blogs to sample. You can find IngBoo WebStart as a free download from the CrackBerry App Store.

Pros

• Easy to manage menu
• Information at a glance

Cons

• Some functions tend to lag
• Limited social network options

More Info

• More information/Download WebStart for BlackBerry Smartphones >>